Better Combat
Sitemap Better Combat (A worthy MMORPG goal) --- --- --- --- --- Visual Appearance/Actions Indicate Damage State, Instead of 'Health Bar' for Opponents/Allies/Self : It is too perfect to know 'to the last HitPoint' when you are 'winning'/losing/tired/etc... (Ditto about your opponents state). More realistic indicators can be done in a game which offers more clues/cues. * Better visual effects to generally indicate damage (red vision, blurred tunnel vision, etc...) * Impairments of actions as a clue (slowness/wavering/clumsiness/stumbling/dropping things/limps/etc... loss of accuracy). Some can be subtle, others more obvious. * Degradation of strength multiplies the effects of encumberment and endurance. Not having exaggerated movements and better animations give the Player more time to spot the clues. --- --- --- The Imbecile Ramp (Typical Game Design) : When MOST NPC enemies simply get More Hitpoints (adjusted up) and DO More Damage simply by increasing their programmed attribute coefficients, INSTEAD of being harder because of improved tactical abilities (which requires clever scripting/programming). (Yes, via bigger/more-powerful guns too, and their program controlled accuracy) This shit poor method is the solution most MMORPGs employ so that enemy abilities can be easily tailored (test adjusted) within a Level-bound Player Advancement System (also mostly done for the Players by upping some similar coefficients/attributes for them too). "Scream and Run Straight at Player" and start beating on them until one or the other is dead (standard MMORPG combat 'tactic'). Then there are the 'Scenarios' with 'placed' big opponents and 'triggered' spawns (all canned and idiotically simple to implement). For the MMORPG the massive improvement would be avoiding "The Imbecile Ramp". The problem is the huge mass of clever scripting that versatile game opponents require to adapt to the players actions (and to fit the terrain). --- --- --- Co-op Beatem Up : With the lowering of game 'fatalities' (without the ridiculous bodycounts) and decline of many weapons (no good Ammo any more and unreliable operation ...) SO having more hand-to-hand fighting (with difficulties of Internet latency delays being involved - possibly having 'Slo-Mo' type time-dilation being made to work (OR your Client program actually handling most of the (non-Player) adversary's fight tactics ?). Slo-Mo can work if the Players aren't interfered with, and that 'fight' situation is isolated (kept independent of the rest of the MMORPG game -- matching with the "Server Bubble" mechanisms this MMORPG would employ). Oh goodie goodie ... 'Special Moves' ( A HAH !! - ANOTHER Player Creation Asset Type ) Sorry, no 'Execution' moves (except for killing vermin). --- --- --- Combat Limitations in "The Ruins" ''' : Things like Ammo eventually run out (and never in great supply to start with), and the home-made stuff is usually pretty awful, so you probably should have more hand weapons and hand-to-hand combat. Even with blunt instruments/short hand weapons, you can transition into punch/kick/grapple/push etc.. Flank/rear angles make a difference (so many games ignore this and the maneuvering aspect of Combat) Blocks/Ducks/Dodges/Faints (with the usuual timing problem of getting sufficient reaction time) The Less-fatal injuries helps with the MMORPG game theme. --- --- --- '''We Still Gots To Have Plasmids in the MMORPG !!!! : What would BioShock be without Plasmids ? Idea that some Splicer's Tonics and Plasmids 'stuck' -- That they didn't deteriorate in some individuals and continued to function (now with MMORPG limitations and 'extra' deterioration adjustments ... ie- misfires/slow recharge-times/inaccuracy). Some Plasmid stockpiles may have still existed (or Factions still making them), but these would be few/rare. Random (Programming the NPC Game AI to use them properly with tactics will be the challenge). But does this mean that some Players still have an 'ability' ?? Wouldn't that be unfair ? (Or just a interesting part of the game ?) Players would of course get to use them in Flashbacks and during Splicer RolePlaying ... --- --- --- For Your Training Convenience : City Shooting Gallery and Range (in New Rapture) - trying to look like a combat simulator, but with really lousy kludged targets, and things that malfunction all the time, in amusing ways. * Various Training by "Experts" - especially for many non-lethal skills/weapons. "Think Like a Splicer", etc... * City Sponsored Pamphlets "The Splicer - Please Don't Kill Them"... and "Aim for the nerve cluster under the Armpits" * Training Required for your Future Job as a Constable. How to handle a 'net' for disorderly Citizens. Fisticuffs and how to handle the brawlers. What to do against an opponent with A Pointed Stick. * Probably a good venue for 'tutorials' about various weapons and trainable tactics (to get used to the interface usage to make it do what you intend). * Variety of weapons to test shoot with. * "Who is Atlas" posters have all been used up (target practice) - hardly one left to be found. (Most of Lambs were destroyed by her ex-followers already). * BYOA (Bring Your Own Ammo) --- --- --- Excuses for Why Combat Is Less Fatal In This MMORPG : Bullets are harder to come by, so you wont be seeing Splicers or Player spraying bullets from Tommyguns too often. Ammunition Quality isn't what it used to be - alot more homemade stuff (even more of the weapons are homemade). Quality of the ammo increases misfires, poor accuracy and range. Rapture is generally less bloodthirsty -- particularly when no longer is some homicadal monster running around bent on shooting up everywhere it goes (like Jack/Delta/Sigma). Similarly, huge ADAM Bounties being offered against 'monsters' are a bit rarer. Splicing has had a marked decline, with limited ADAM supplies. Remaining Splicers have 'evolved', with those remaining alive (surviving) being the ones who weren't so violent and more cautious. The people who NEVER spliced also proved more productive. --- --- --- Scarcity of ADAM - So Other Weapons ''' : With Chaos-era ADAM shortages, various other things might be employed as weapons, besides the usual knives/clubs/remaining-guns/chunks-of-concrete. People can be creative. There were some Bio-Toxins projected by Plasmids (Snake Gene recombination ???) But equivalent Toxins can be projected manually (sprayers/guns/coated blades/fume-bombs) if you have a source for them. Caustics/burning-fuels would be even simpler to obtain (cleansing powder thrown into a face ...). Various explosives have already been demonstrated. Of course this require tactics done by Splicers and NPCs (which requires good AI scripting/programming to add all the various combat actions plausible). --- --- --- '''Wounds ("That which does not kill you ...") : Memorable animations(s) from Farcry 2 - When you were injured sufficiently, there were first-person animations of you doing crude surgery/injury fixing operations (pulling a bullet out with pliers, cauterizing a wound with a cluster of matches, etc.. besides the usual sticking in a needle or popping some pills) which would make neat additions to this game. Doubly because you can watch/see other Players/NPCs/Splicers doing it as well. --- --- --- --- --- . .